A Long Waited Return
by Vanessa Cullen 17
Summary: A lot has changed since ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents first came to the spirit world. It is now ten years later and Chihiro is still thinking about Haku. Many times she wanted to visit and never worked up the nerve to go there but then one day she is forced to make a trip to his world when five-year-old Akari decides to run off through the mysterious red building.


Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) – A Long Waited Return

Chapter One – The Return

Chihiro's POV

**TEN YEARS LATER..**

I stood in front of the enormous red building and recounted the day when my parents walked through with me. That was so long ago yet it seemed like yesterday. Every so often I would drive here in my car and just sit, stare, and wonder. A couple of times I made it through the building to the soft rolling grass on the other side but that is as far as I could push myself.

I had told my parents later that day about what had happened and they didn't believe me. Right after I said it to them I knew I shouldn't have but I wanted someone to believe me! I kept it up and kept it up and they didn't know what to do but to send me to shrink. I was isolated from my friends (not that I cared to see most of them anyway), it was mostly just school and home. That was my life until I graduated and got out in the world.

It has been ten years since I visited this other side. I am twenty-years old now. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him. About Haku or his real name, Kohaku River. There is no doubt in my mind that even my ten year old self had feelings for him and even though we have been separated all these years, my feelings for him have just intensified. I have spent all this time thinking about him yet I haven't visited for so many reasons.

I broke Haku out of Yubaba's control by revealing his true name yet he chose to stay there. I found out his name because I had eventually remembered that when I was younger I dropped my shoe in the river and fell in trying to retrieve it. I thought it was just the current that had saved me from drowning and had washed me to shore but it Haku. He was the spirit of the Kohaku River. He vowed that we would meet again and we have several times but within the past five years I have not seen or heard from him. I didn't know if something is wrong. What if something happened to him? What if he just didn't care about me anymore? I am just some measly human anyway.

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a car door slamming. I turned around to find that my daughter had somehow unbuckled her car seat, taking advantage of the fact that I was lost in thought, took it upon herself to leave our small Audi. I turned face forward again to see my daughter with her soft brown hair, ponytail waving in the wind running towards the building. I opened my car door and stared at her in panic.

Just then she turned around and stared straight at me. Her almost identical features pouring into mine. Her soft innocent brown eyes were searching for something as she stared at me. Then she grabbed hold of her purple backpack straps so they wouldn't fall off her shoulders. "Akari!" I yelled. She didn't look back though and I soon couldn't see the purple colored backpack or the rose colored dress she wore. With tears streaming and a face full of panic I ran from my car and through the building screaming her name.

When I finally reached the soft grasslands I realized it was too late. My daughter had already found the 'carnival' grounds' and had crossed over into the spirit world. Knowing now that I didn't have a choice, I also took the plunge into that world to go find and save my daughter before it is too late.

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><p><em>Thanks for reading! I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, please feel free to write them to me! PLEASE REVIEW! I do hope everyone liked this though because I literally just watched 'Spirited Away' today with my boyfriend and found it quite enjoyable and it inspired me to write this! So.. uhm.. yeah.. Thanks everyone!<em>

_Vanessa_

_(Vanessa Cullen 17)_


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